Control Panel designers often desire to put a printed circuit board (PCB) inside their product that provides the interface by which humans interact with the product. This interface can utilize a variety of components on the PCB, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), buttons, switches, numerical displays, Liquid crystal display (LCD) displays, etc. For a number of reasons, including the height of the various components on the PCB or protection from electro-static discharge, the PCB will be mounted at some distance behind the panel surface.
To achieve the desired visual appearance of the human interface, the components on the PCB may need to be raised above the surface of the PCB. Standoffs are a means to accurately and repeatably assemble LEDs on the PCB at a particular height. Standoffs are common for through-hole mounting LEDs to a PCB.